Audrey Jones Beck

Audrey Jones Beck was born in Houston, Texas, on March 27, 1922. She was the granddaughter of Houston entrepreneur Jesse H. Jones. Beck was a founding trustees of the Houston Grand Opera, the Houston Ballet, and a trustee of the Houston Symphony Society. However, Houston did not have a strong tradition of philanthropy in the visual arts at that time and there were few examples for her to follow. "The earliest wealthy people here just didn't collect painting and sculpture." said Peter Marzio, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH). In her later years, Audrey Beck rarely ventured out, but often entertain friends at her home. Audrey Beck was diagnosed with cancer just a few weeks before she died in 2003. In addition to the art collection, the philanthropist and art historian bequeathed both the California and Houston houses to the Fine Arts Museum, Houston, which were later sold for funds. == Audrey Jones Beck Building ==

The Audrey Jones Beck Building was designed by architect Rafael Moneo and opened to the public in 2000. It houses 158,150 ft² (14,693 m²) of galleries for the museum's permanent collection of antiquities, European painting and sculpture to 1900, American art, as well as temporary exhibitions. The Beck building makes intense use of natural light to illuminate the galleries. "The roof becomes the most characteristic image of the museum, showing the importance given to the light, the real protagonist of an architecture whose substance is found in the interior space." It is one of several buildings on the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston campus, and one of the three primary exhibition spaces open to the public. The Beck building is joined to the Kinder Building with 20th-21st century art, and the Wiess Law Building of Asian, African, oceanic, and Pre-Columbian art, by an underground tunnel featuring the permanent installation of James Turrell's, The Light Inside (1999). == The Beck collection ==

, The Rocks (1888), is one of well over 150 works of art that Beck donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The Beck collection is an important foundation of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's permanent collection. The collection predominantly includes late 19th and early 20th century art, with a focus on impressionism, post impressionism, early modern French painting, and the School of Paris. Examples of Egyptian antiquities, Asian porcelain and decorative arts, antique American silver, and early to mid 19th century American photography are also included. Artist and art movements in the Beck collection include representative examples of realist and en plein air painters such as Eugène Boudin, and Honoré Daumier. Impressionist painters include Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and others. A gallery of neo-impressionism (pointillism) exhibits the paintings of Henri-Edmond Cross, Maximilien Luce, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac and several other members of the movement. Post-Impressionists include Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Vuillard, and many others. The Fauvist collection is near encyclopedic, including paintings by Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck, and more. A few examples of symbolism (e.g. Odilon Redon), expressionism (e.g. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner), Cubism (e.g. Georges Braque), are also included in the collection, as are works by Marc Chagall, Alexej von Jawlensky, Vasily Kandinsky, František Kupka, Amedeo Modigliani, Georges Rouault, Henri Rousseau, and Chaïm Soutine. As a collector, Beck often dared to seek out the work of lesser-known artist and wanted their finest work represented in the collection. Some were relatively unknown when she bought them. Artist like Albert André were not often be seen in museums at that time. Her first bequest to the museum was View of the Seine, Paris (1871), by Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin in 1971. She remained a lifetime trustee of the MFAH and she continued to acquire paintings and build the collection up to the last year of her life. Peter Marzio said. "She always thought of it as a teaching collection." She aspired to assemble a representative collection of the era, exhibiting the full depth and scope of the period to people who knew little about art and impressionism. ==John A. and Audrey Jones Beck House==

The John A. and Audrey Jones Beck home was designated a Landmark by the City of Houston, Archaeological & Historical Commission in 2006. The house was originally designed and constructed in 1948–1950 by the Wilson, Morris & Crain architects of Houston, noted designers of the Astrodome (1962). It was later remodeled with the addition of a two-story "Great Hall" in 1960 by the same architectural firm. The Beck House integrates stylistic elements of English Tudor as well as French Norman architectural examples. The two story house is constructed with a masonry first floor and a wooden upper story, featuring an unusual side main entry. It is located in the River Oaks area of Houston and privately situated at the back of the lot behind trees, and not easily viewed from the street. Although the house has been designated as an historical landmark by the City of Houston, it is currently a private residence and not open to the public. ==Audrey Jones Beck Papers and Memorabilia==

The Audrey Jones Beck Papers and Memorabilia are archived at the Woodson Research Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas. The archives include of family records, photographs, artifacts, correspondence, documents on philanthropy, and Museum of Fine Arts Houston records, spanning from 1860 to 2004. ==References==